You Instead - Movie Review

15 September 2011

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Eclectic filmmaker Mackenzie tries out another genre with this frisky, loose romantic comedy filmed at a music festival. The result is thoroughly enjoyable, with the zing of real crowds and musicians overcoming some very corny plot turns.

Adam (Treadaway) and Tyko (Baynton) are the frontmen for the hit band The Make, getting ready to perform at Scotland's huge T in the Park festival. When they have a confrontation with girl band The Dirty Pinks, a stranger handcuffs Adam to lead singer Morello (Tena) in an attempt to bring peace. Adam's grumpy supermodel girlfriend Lake (Gedmintas) isn't finding this funny, and neither is Morello's nice-guy boyfriend Mark (Mackenzie). But the real problem is that the girls are due on stage soon, and no one can find the key.

The film is like a stream of consciousness over the course of 24 hours, as several wacky characters intersect during loud concert performances, raucous backstage gatherings and encounters with UK festival fixtures like porta-loos, clammy tents and excessive amounts of alcohol and mud. Of course, Adam and Morello do begin to get along, and then some, despite the general goofy chaos around them. Along the way there are some enjoyable sequences as Adam interrupts The Dirty Pinks' set in surprising ways, and then Morello returns the favour.

On the other hand, the plot is both contrived and predictable, including some sideroads involving other romantic entanglements, The Make's ill-tempered manager (Mitchell) and a pair of eco-warriors (Wu and Benson). But Mackenzie shoots it like a reality TV show, with guerrilla-style camerawork that follows the characters right through the crowds and into the smallest spaces, which makes the film often exhilarating to watch.

It also helps that Treadaway and Tena are thoroughly engaging in the central roles. Their edgy banter and cynical insults are hilarious, which helps them to exist on another plane from the rest of the characters. Meanwhile, Baynton has an odyssey of his own that feels amusingly improvised. And by the time all of the somewhat forced story threads are tied off, we're won over by the film's scruffy charm, as well as a subtle comment on artistic camaraderie.